Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Kymellian)
Occupation: Scientist, technician, inventor
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Kymellian people, Meraud, "Mass
Master", "Dr. James Power", "Margret
Power", Krenok One, other unnamed pseudoplasmic
servants
Enemies: Power Pack (Mass Master (Alex Power), Lightspeed (Julie Power),
Destroyer (Jack Power) and Counterweight (Katie Power) ), their parents James and
Margret Power, Meraud
Known Relatives: Unrevealed
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unidentified moon/spacestation
in the Kymellian's native star system
First Appearance: Power Pack Holiday Special#1 (February, 1992)
Powers/Abilities: In his original body the Technocrat would
have had the same potential for powers as any other Kymellian had, though
it is currently unrevealed if he ever developed any outside of possibly
teleportation. His pseudoplasmic body was infinitely malleable, though
without an atmosphere it was unable to hold a pre-programmed shape and
reverted into a liquid state. Presumably if re-exposed to an atmosphere
the pseudoplasmic body could resume its pre-programmed form. While
the full weapons array of his body armor is unrevealed, he was shown to
fire a power-neutralizing "goop" from his glove. As part of his base's
computer system the Technocrat was able to observe anyone anywhere on/in
his "body" and project a holographic image of himself anywhere on the base
to interact with visitors. He was also able to "see" (using his computers)
what his other pseudoplasmic creations saw, even when they were on another
planet, and direct their actions. He could teleport objects to and
from his base over vast (galactic scale) distances, though it's unclear
how much of this was native Kymellian teleporting ability and how much
was done using machines on his base. He had control over the other
machines that kept the base in working order, and evidently could rearrange
the matter of small objects at will (or else he teleported Meraud's hand
restraints away; the story was a tad unclear which it was).
(Power Pack Holiday Special#1 - BTS) - The Technocrat, upset at
the destruction of the Kymellia II spacestation because it prevented him
from acquiring supplies to create more pseudoplasm and replenishing his
supply of servants, decided to kidnap Dr. James Power and his wife, Margret,
to take the formula for the matter/anti-matter converter from their minds
(the Kymellian version of that formula was too strictly guarded for him
to gain easy access to and use). He wanted to use the formula to destroy
the current homeworld of the Kymellian people, New Kymellia, so the Kymellians
would once more be dependent on the technicians to keep their people safe
and alive. At the insistence of his "ally", former Snark Queen Meraud,
the Technocrat replaced the Powers with reprogrammed pseudoplasmic servants
to keep their children, (who made up Power Pack and were somewhat responsible
for the creation of New Kymellia -- see the Force
Four entry for some of the details) from finding out about the
switch, and to keep an eye on their activities. However, Mass Master
(Alex Power) soon discovered the switch, but before he could do anything
about it the Technocrat kidnapped Alex and replaced him with a reprogrammed
pseudoplasmic duplicate that had his Mass Master powers, and believed itself
the real Alex Power. All three duplicates unknowingly broadcasted
everything they saw and heard back to the Technocrat, and all three believed
themselves to be the person they imitated. (It also puts the Technocrat
as BTS from Power Pack I#57-62, Excalibur I#29, and Marvel Super-Heroes III#6/2, but
since he seemingly did nothing but observe the action without directing
anything, I didn't list him separately as BTS for each of those issues.
-- the profile writer)
(Power Pack I#56) - The faux Alex was awakened in the middle of
the night by Pack member Tattletale (Franklin Richards), who had had one
of his "special dreams" (Franklin's powers had been reduced down to precognitive
dreams at this time in his history) about his friend Nova (Frankie Raye)
fighting the cosmic entity Star-Stalker, whose path of destruction was
leading it towards Earth. While getting ready to find Nova, "Alex"
discovered he was starting to loose his hair; the idea that he was going
bald at age 13 threw him into a panic, though he didn't tell anyone about
it right then. The Pack had their smartship Friday to take them to
the planet shown in Tattletale's dream, where they found an Elan child
that had been injured in the Star Stalker's initial attack on the planet.
Initially feeling useless because the others were able to free the child
without his help, "Alex" examined the alien and wished for some way to
help it live. He then started to glow with an unknown energy similar
to the Kymellian's healing power that also managed to seemingly heal the
alien child as well. Unable to help Nova stop the Star Stalker, the
Pack could only watch while the Stalker drained all of Nova's powers into
itself, then settled down to sleep while Lightspeed (Julie) rescued the
now-human Nova from dying in space. "Alex" got the idea to give the
Stalker even more power while it was unconscious in an attempt to overload
it and stop its menace for good, so he had the Destroyer (his brother Jack)
feed it all the power he had stored up in himself, forcing the Stalker
to create a cocoon around itself. It then teleported itself away,
to land on the next planet in its path, Earth. . . .
(Power Pack I#57) - Back on the smartship the Elan's condition began
to worsen and it started to fire energy balls from one of its antennae.
"Alex" immediately turned cloudy when one of the balls came towards him,
but he was unable to stop another ball from hitting Tattletale and knocking
him unconscious. When Jack managed to absorb enough of the Elan's
energies to allow Friday to cauterize its wound, "Alex" reflected on how
he was unable to solve the problem, then panicked when he noticed his hair
loss had already created a noticeable bald spot and quickly recombed his
hair to hide it. Back on Earth, the Pack soon found the Stalker
rampaging through Central Park and quickly attacked the beast, with "Alex"
using his cloud powers to hide the Stalker so its appearance would not
create more of a panic than it had already caused. The Pack was able
to keep the Stalker busy long enough for a now-awake Nova to go to the
Baxter Building and retrieve a Stimulator (a device that can restore a
superhuman's lost powers) and set it up to drain the Stalker's powers into
herself. It worked, but the settings were slightly off on the Stimulator,
and Nova became a power-mad brute herself. . . .
Meanwhile, "Margret Power", following a feeling that
something was wrong, got up to check on the kids, then ran hysterically
back to her husband "James" and woke him up. "James" checked the
kids" rooms himself, then lied to his wife and told her the kids were really
still there to calm her hysterics. While getting "Margret" a cup
of chamomile tea, "James" realized that he had a good idea that the kids
were really super-heroes, and put in a call to Tattletale's father, Reed
Richards (of the Fantastic Four), to tell him what he suspected:
that their kids had formed their own super-team and were out having adventures
and not telling their parents.
(Power Pack I#58) - While Tattletale was off getting a weapon from
Galactus to stop Nova, "Alex" tried to knock down Nova with a combination
of his superdense form and Counterweight's (Katie Power) gravity power,
but found Nova was able to counter both powers easily. "Alex" got
the idea to douse Nova with water to snuff out her powers, so the Pack
stole a nearby water tank and dumped it on Nova, but "Alex" then found
that the backlash from the steam was causing him to dissipate before he
pulled himself back from that. Meanwhile "James" met with Reed at
an outdoor cafe to discuss his suspicions, but the talk was interrupted
by noise from the battle. Rushing towards the fight, "James" was
shocked to find that his kids were putting themselves in danger to stop
Nova. While "James" could only stand around in a state of shock,
Reed grabbed the Stimulator and reset it to absorb enough of Nova's powers
in an attempt to return her to her right mind, and "Alex" used his cloud
power to hide his family from the just-arrived news cameras. At this
point Tattletale returned from space with an Elemental Obliterator (borrowed
from Galactus, it had the same tendency to kill the person wielding it
as the Ultimate Nullifier did -- when the big G. puts triggerlocks on
his guns, he doesn't fool around!) to use on Nova to stop her mad rampage,
while "James" kept Reed from stopping Tattletale's suicidal gesture.
When the Elan decided to be the one to sacrifice itself to stop Nova, "Mass
Master" wished for a way to somehow save the Elan from getting killed,
and put a density field around the Elan, then found he could suddenly link
his powers with his siblings and used their combined powers to push the
Elan away from the gun before it self-destructed. The restored Nova
then left Earth to continue her work for Galactus while the Pack and Reed
left the park, not knowing that while painting in her studio, "Margret"
had seen the newscasts of Power Pack fighting Nova, and that the revelation/confirmation
that her children were now super-heroes had driven her into a massive hysterical
attack, denying what she had seen. . . . .
(Power Pack I#59 - BTS) - "James" asked Richards if Tattletale could
move in with them for a while in an attempt to show his wife that their
kids were not the only ones with superpowers, and somehow bring her out
of her catatonic state. Richards enthusiastically agreed to have
Franklin stay with them for a short time.
(Power Pack I#59) - A day or so later "Alex" woke up before everyone else
in the house did, and was distressed to realize he was still going bald.
Deciding there was only one solution, "Alex" left the apartment and went
to a local barber and had his hair cut down to a very short buzz cut.
Later that morning "James" made a (barely edible) breakfast for the other
kids while discussing a trip to the circus later that day (unbeknownst
to them, the circus being advertised was -- wait for it -- The Circus of
Crime!). "James" was startled when he learned Julie was more
interested in seeing a rich handsome Indian prince that the papers announced
was going to be there rather than the acts themselves ("his" little girl
was interested in BOYS already!! ;) ) While "James" served
"Margret" breakfast in their bedroom to avoid upsetting her further, "Alex"
returned to the apartment. The two talked briefly in the kitchen.
"James" berated "Alex" for going out without saying anything to anyone,
and "Alex" revealed only that he had a personal problem that he didn't
want the others to learn about, leaving "James" to assume it was simply
a problem associated with puberty. "James" resolved to try not to
ride "Alex" too hard, and to be more supportive of him while he going through
puberty. When "Alex" showed the others his new haircut, "James" and
the kids were taken totally by surprise by the drastic hairstyle change.
After Franklin arrived and mentioned he liked "Alex's" new hairstyle because
it was shorter than his, "James" made a joke about how lots of people get
bad haircuts every day, which only served to put "Alex" deeper into his
funk, and "James" to worry over him again. Later at the circus the
kids witnessed the theft of the Indian Prince's ultra-valuable crown jewel
(which he was wearing in his turban) by the Circus" Clown,
Bruto the Strongman, the Human Cannonball, the acrobatic Great Gambonnos,
and the cowboy Livewire (they had decided that the single jewel was that
great a prize to go against the Ringmaster's direct orders to not pull
a heist during the show). The Pack decided to intervene and changed
into their costumes where they were seated in the bleachers and went on
the offensive. A herd of various animals released by Clown and Livewire
rampaged through the tent and almost trampled "Mass Master" underneath
them, before he shrank himself down to a much smaller size to avoid being
knocked down (why he didn't just turn cloudy I have no clue). The
animals were then degravitized and juggled by Katie. "Mass Master"
found the turban, and barely missed being crushed by the Strongman.
Unable to see anything carrying a turban at that small a size, "Mass Master" decided
to return to his original size, happily wearing the turban as "Prince Alex
-- Ruler, Mover, and Shaker" until the Clown stole it off his head.
"Mass Master" used his cloud form to herd the animals to safety when he noticed
the Ringmaster now had the turban. The Pack could only watch while
the Ringmaster decided to hand the turban back to the Prince under the
pretense he was actually recovering it for him, then used his hypno-disc
to make the Prince (and the just-arrived policemen) forget the theft attempt
by his employees.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, "James" entered
"Margret's" art studio to see how she was doing, and decided to look her
most recent paintings over. He was shocked to find them all dark
and grim in nature, like she had become suddenly obsessed with death and
destruction. "James" found "Margret" in their bedroom staring out
the window, oblivious to his presence, and staring at a vision of attacking
monsters. He tried to talk to her, but the kids came home right then,
and he had to go quite them down so as to not disturb "Margret".
While "James" worried over his wife's sanity, "Margret" continued to stare
at the vision she was experiencing.
Later that night the kids stayed up late to watch
TV. The others commented on how the new haircut made "Alex's" nose
look bigger, and how the light from the TV made his hair look longer in
the middle than on the sides. Disgusted by their comments, and experiencing
a pounding headache, "Alex" made his way to the bathroom, and to his horror
found that his nose really was bigger -- far bigger than any human nose
should be, and that his hair had suddenly sprouted a Mohawk literally in
the last few hours. . . . .
Meanwhile, "James" and "Margret" had spent the day
enjoying themselves and celebrating "Margret's" recovery. They were
sitting at the kitchen table laughing when the kids got home from school.
"James" told Franklin about his parents" calling and told him he could
use their phone to call them back. After Franklin finished his phone
call "Alex" returned to the apartment, where he and Franklin had a small
talk about "Alex's" transformation, with Franklin reassuring "Alex" that
he was going to be all right no matter how he looked. The talk was
interrupted by "James", who decided to confront "Alex" over his strange
behavior. "James" was shocked by "Alex's" new appearance and was
in the process of comforting a distraught "Alex" when "Margret" decided
to enter the room herself to see what was going on with "Alex". When
she saw her son's new look, she immediately fell back into her catatonia
and collapsed at their feet.
(Power Pack I#61) - During Friday's final approach to the Power's
apartment building it was attacked by an energy attack from the Red Ghost,
forcing it to crash-land in the Power's apartment instead of landing on
the roof like it intended. Inside the apartment Destroyer (Jack)
managed to absorb enough debris fast enough to create a "safe pocket" enabling
his sister Counterweight to degravitize the debris above them and free
themselves. Lightspeed asked Counterweight to degravitize their unconscious
"parents" so she (Lightspeed) could fly them to safety, but Counterweight
was afraid the roof would fall on them if she remover her powers from it.
"Mass Master" managed to reach Lightspeed and their "parents" and placed
a density field around them to keep the falling debris off them, but failed
to put one around himself in time to avoid being knocked for a loop himself
by the destruction. Tattletale managed to use his dreamself to take
control of "Mass Master's" body just long enough for "Mass Master" to recover, and
to send his dreamself to his parents for help while "Mass Master" protected his
body and the others with the density shield. Power Pack, their "parents",
Raymond (who had been pretty much a bystander in the book for the last
few issues, and who had been out in outer space with Friday and the Elan),
"Marty" the Elan, and the mechanical globe that housed Friday's consciousness
were rescued and brought to Four Freedoms Plaza. There Mister Fantastic
put Friday's "brain" on the computer equivalent of life support machines,
and examined "Margret". He quickly determined that he could undo
Lord Yrik's mindlock on her (which Yrik had used on the true James and
Margret Power ages ago to help Power Pack keep their secret superhero lives
from their parents, and which everyone in this storyline assumed to be
the real cause of "Margret's" breakdowns), but at the possible price of
irreversible brain damage to her. While "James" thought those options
out and wished for his family to be normal again, Mr. Fantastic examined
"Alex", running various radiation and DNA tests on him. Told that
the tests were inconclusive, a dispirited "Alex" rested his hand on Friday's
globe, transferring enough of his healing power into it to revive Friday's
consciousness again. It then gave Mister Fantastic some needed information
on Kymellian genetics, which allowed him to adjust one of his many machines
for use in reversing "Alex's" transformation. While "James" wished
to have more time to adjust to this new development "Alex" pressed to have
the reversal done immediately. During the painful reversal process
the Red Ghost (disguised as Tattletale) entered the lab to steal Friday's
globe and attacked, gassing Mr. Fantastic and throwing "James" into the
reversal machine, causing it to go haywire and trapping "Alex" in his cloud
form. While the Invisible Woman and Power Pack dealt with the Ghost
and his Super-Apes, "Margret" heard the commotion from her room down the
hall, and began to panic when she couldn't see where her husband and children
were. While Raymond went to investigate the Elan found there was
one thing that could calm "Margret" down enough for her to sleep, and was
happy to see it working so quickly. (As revealed next issue, the
Elan altered its appearance to look like "James".) After defeating
the heroes the Red Ghost laughed maniacally in his triumph, until he was
suddenly confronted by "James", wearing a costume himself and ready to
take on the Ghost and his Apes.
(Power Pack I#62) - While "James" (actually the Elan disguised as
him; I assume he didn't drop the disguise to keep the Red Ghost from realizing
that he was fighting another alien until it was too late) kept the Red
Ghost and his Apes busy, "Mass Master" looked the devastation over and
worried that the reason he couldn't reform his body was because he was
already dead. He then heard a voice (the one from #60) introducing
itself (though not naming itself) to him. The voice told him that
it would be there if he really needed it, and then encouraged "Mass Master"
to focus his thoughts on reforming himself, which he finally managed to
do. Feeling much stronger and more powerful than before, "Mass Master"
looked over his fallen friends and determined to use his new strength to
put an end to the Ghost's schemes, and was puzzled by the voice's parting
comment about "an ending shall come", and decided to worry about it later.
"Mass Master" turned his newly-boosted healing power on his friends and
fixed them up in time to witness the Ghost defeating the Elan (and eliminating
its disguise) and explaining how he learned of the true power behind a
smartship (evidently he intercepted some Snark transmissions and learned
about Kymellian technology, then tracked down Friday and attacked it to
steal its brain). The Ghost and his Apes escaped, but they only got
as far as Sheep Meadow in Central Park before Power Pack caught up with
them. While "Alex" was feeling like a useful member of the team again,
the Ghost had one of his apes take on "Margret's" appearance in an attempt
to make the others believe she had been taken hostage, but Tattletale quickly
learned that the true "Margret" was still back at the Plaza asleep, and
used his dreamself to force the Margret illusion from the monkey's body
and to keep the Ghost from using his dematerializing power to escape, while
"Mass Master" knocked out the monkey with a density field and "James" felled
the Ghost with a right to the jaw. Later back at the Plaza, Mister
Fantastic re-examined "Alex" again, and found that "Alex" had mutated just
enough to keep him from being restored by the original process. Learning
to accept his new form, "Alex" wandered around the Plaza a bit, and realized
by watching the Thing and Ms. Marvel (Sharon Ventura) that he could still
have something resembling a normal life. He also watched as the Human
Torch, with some help from the Elan, finished reassembling Friday, and
was among those teleported to the roof by the Elan (he wanted to get Friday
back outside where it could fly again). "James" then thanked the
Fantastic Four for their help with their problems, and told them he had
decided to try out a couple of other sources for curing his wife:
the Institute of Psychic Research in London, England, and the Collard Institute
for Psychic Studies in the Caribbean. "James" "Margret", Mass Master",
Tattletale, the Elan, and the rest of the Power Pack boarded Friday, then
left the Plaza for London.
(Excalibur I#29 (fb) ) - Power Pack, "James", and "Margret" arrive
at the Institute of Psychic Research at London (apparently after taking
"Margret" to several other experts besides the ones in Marvel Super-Heroes III#6) looking
to see if they had a cure for her. The staff there instead took them
down to a room and gassed everyone into unconsciousness, save for "Mass
Master", who changed into his gas form and escaped via the same vent used
to release the gas. (see comments below). He barely
managed to reach Friday and the Elan (now officially called Marty by the
others) before passing out. Friday recalled that the X-Men Nightcrawler
(Kurt Wagner) and Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) were currently part of the British
team Excalibur, and flew to their lighthouse to ask for their aid.
(Excalibur I#29) - A wary Excalibur (Captain Britain (Brian Braddock),
Meggan, Phoenix (Rachel Summers), Nightcrawler) approached Friday after
it appeared above their home base. Nightcrawler teleported inside
where he found the unconscious "Mass Master" in a corridor. He woke
"Mass Master" up, thinking at first he was an alien. After "Mass Master" updated
Nightcrawler on his recent transformation, Friday allowed the other Excalibur
members in, and "Alex" swiftly told them what had happened to his family
at the Institute. After Excalibur agreed to help, Friday took
them to the Institute, where Captain Britain, Megan, and Phoenix disguised
themselves as a doctor, nurse, and patient respectively, to infiltrate
the Institute, while leaving "Alex" and Nightcrawler to teleport in, since
they'd have some trouble passing for normal (and again giving "Alex" the
idea that there really was someone else in the world who understood being
that different from normal humans as he was). (Brief comment:
the dialogue makes it sound like "Alex" did the teleporting since Nightcrawler
was still weak from recent injuries, but the teleporting field shown was
clearly Nightcrawler's, so who really did what is unclear.) "Mass
Master" and Nightcrawler soon found where the Power family and Tattletale
were being held, but before they could contact the rest of Excalibur they
were discovered and attacked. During the ensuing melee, Excalibur
found that the Institute's staff had been transformed into demons, but
they were themselves gassed before they could do anything about it.
They were offered up to the demon's master, who turned out to be Nightmare.
Preying on each of Excalibur's darkest fears, he quickly turned Phoenix
into his own personal slave and had her track down and enslave the others,
which she did. "Mass Master" (after merging with Tattletale, who
had been following an unconscious summoning by Phoenix) confronted the
enslave Phoenix after Nightmare turned her into his "horse" and rode her
around. Nightmare used Phoenix's power to absorb "Mass Master" into
their merged form, but then Tattletale used his powers to unmerge them
all, then merged himself with Phoenix to break Nightmare's hold on them
and return them all to the waking world. Back in the "real world",
everyone woke up (Excalibur back in their tower, PP back on Friday) believing
that what they experienced was just a very bad dream (in fact, if I
read the ending correctly, they evidently didn't even visit the Institute
at all the whole issue, let alone meet up with Excalibur), with "James"
deciding that the trip over there had been a waste of time, just as Friday
began final approach to the Institute's grounds. . . .
(Marvel Super Heroes III#6/2) - While "Margret" was treated at the
Collard Institute for Psychic Studies in the Caribbean (with Marty to
keep her company, I assume, since he isn't otherwise seen or mentioned
in this story), "James" became engrossed with studying some aquatic
phenomena (specifically some mysterious globes that had been found nearby)
while the kids relaxed at the beach. Kate and Franklin asked "Alex"
if he wanted to help build their sandcastle, but "Alex" decided it would
be better for him if he stayed covered up (in jeans, overcoat, and baseball
cap) to keep people from being frightened by his horsey appearance.
When the sight of a finned creature swimming in the ocean sent the beach's
population running away in a panic, "Alex" ran towards the ocean to see
what was causing the ruckus. Under the waves "Alex" saw a humanoid
fish, but had to come up for air before he could investigate further.
However, the fishman followed him and punched him into a daze before departing.
Rescued from drowning by Jack, "Alex" told the others what he had seen,
but when he told how he had to come up for air, the others began to make
fun of him, since he had temporarily forgotten that their uniforms could
be modified in the otherdimensional Elsewhere to allow them to survive
underwater. Searching the ocean floor for clues, Power Pack soon
found some divers who were collecting some colorful globes and taking them
to their ship. Appalled that the natural beauty of the waters was
being despoiled, the Pack decided to board the divers' ship (called the
Wild Thing) to see if what they witnessed was legal or not. Moments
after boarding and noticing that the divers had "tons" of globes, the ship's
captain immediately spotted them and ordered them to leave the globes alone.
The ship was then attacked from below by an unknown attacker. The
Pack used their powers to save the ship, but then a second attack broke
the bow of the ship (where the majority of the globes were at), knocking
some of the crew off and dropping the majority of the globes back into
the water. "Mass Master", Lightspeed, and Tattletale spotted the
fishman on the ocean floor, but the kids decided their top priority was
to rescue the ship's crew from drowning, and left the monster for another
time. Later at a local restaurant the kids discussed what to tell
their father, only to be confronted by an angry "James", who had learned of
their adventure from the head scientist that had been onboard the ship
when it was attacked. "James" was upset that the kids had disrupted
a legitimate scientific expedition, but calmed down when the Pack explained
their side of the story. "James" apologized, saying that he still
didn't know how to react to the kids" secret lives as super-heroes, and
offered to rent a boat for them all as a way to relax. While out
on the water, Franklin suddenly had one of his visions and asked "James"
to turn the boat around. "James" angrily refused, saying they had
come out there to relax, not get involved in yet more super-hero business,
but "Alex" convinced "James" that helping to stop whatever bad thing Franklin
saw happening in his vision was the right thing to do. They soon
found the source of Franklin's visions was an attack by the fishman --
who Franklin identified as the Monster
from the Lost Lagoon -- and his mate, who were trying to rescue their
eggs (the globes the scientists were trying to study) from exploitation.
Franklin convinced the Monster to stop his attack, while the rest of the
Pack used their healing power on the Monster's mate, who had been seriously
injured by the expedition's captain. Reunited with their children,
the Monster and his mate thanked the Pack for their help, then left in
their ship for space. "James" decided he was wrong to have not trusted
the Pack from the start, and promised to be there for them from now on.
(Power Pack I#62) - After dropping off "Alex" back in their home
neighborhood so he could say good-bye to girlfriend Alison, "James" and
the others returned to Four Freedom's Plaza to drop off Tattletale and
to inform the Fantastic Four of their intention to travel to Kymellia and
see if either Yrik or someone else there could remove the mindlocks from
"Margret" and "James", and perhaps learn more of why "Alex" transformed
the way he did. Meanwhile "Alex" found Alison talking with another
guy, and thought that she must have decided she couldn't wait for him forever.
Unwilling to let Alison see him in his transformed state, he said good-bye
from several yards away, then ran off before she could turn and get a good
look at him. Back at the Plaza the Pack said their good-byes to Tattletale
and the FF while the Elan explained to Mister Fantastic that he was returning
to his own sector of space. Taking a last look at Earth, "Alex" reflected
on how everything was a miracle since Whitey gave them their powers (waaaay
back in Power Pack I#1), and that it was Whitey who was the mysterious voice who
"talked" to him during the Red Ghost encounter. He then relaxed,
thinking he was in a sense finally going home.
(Power Pack Holiday Special#1 - BTS) - At some point in their journey
to Kymellia, Power Pack dropped off the Elan back in his own sector of
space. Also at some (different?) point during the journey "James"
developed his own set of super-powers.
(Power Pack Holiday Special#1) - After Friday re-entered normal
space in the Kymellian system, Julie tried to bring "Margret" out of her
catatonic state by reminiscing about happier times, but was unsuccessful.
While everyone continued to rest in either their seats or on a mattress,
Julie reflected on recent events, and began to puzzle out what may have
really happened to "Alex" and their parents. Observing this from
his base, the Technocrat was persuaded by exiled Snark Queen Meraud to
switch Lightspeed with another pseudoplasmic servant before Julie solved
the riddle. The Technocrat transformed his servant Krenok One into
a duplicate of Lightspeed, but before he could switch him for the real
Lightspeed, the imprisoned Mass Master managed to escape from his containment
tube and destroyed the machine used to reshape the pseudoplasmic servants
into the four faux Powers, cutting off the signal keeping them in those
shapes and causing the servants imitating Alex, James, and Margret, to
revert to liquid form in front of the horrified Power children (and causing
the fake Julie back on the station to melt as well). Before the Power
children could do anything besides be horrified the Technocrat teleported
Lightspeed off Friday and imprisoned her in a tube next to her recaptured
brother. While Lightspeed and Mass Master compared notes on what
was going on, Friday examined the remains of the three fake Powers, and
explained to Counterweight and Destroyer what pseudoplasm was, and how
it could fool even Kymellian scanners (not to mention the human Mr. Fantastic's
scanners) into thinking the duplicates were living beings. Destroyer
initially wanted to question the duplicates on who created them, but when
he realized they would be unable to tell him anything (due to the duplicates
not knowing/remembering they were duplicates to begin with) he and Counterweight
reluctantly gathered the liquid remains of "Alex", "James", and "Margret"
into Friday's ejection shoot, and dumped them into space before the orders
to resolidify came through.
Now unable to observe what was going on onboard Friday,
the Technocrat turned his attention onto the containment cocoons holding
the real James and Margret Power in stasis, preparing to sift their memories
for the plans to James's anti-matter generator, so the Technocrat could
build his own version of same and destroy the Kymellian people's new homeworld.
Notified that Friday was nearing the Kymellian homeworld, the Technocrat
attacked the smartship, noting that the smartship's technology was somewhat
ahead of his own, and adapt at evading his most sophisticated ordinance.
Seemingly damaging Friday severely, the Technocrat allowed the smartship
to land on one of his docking bays, apparently not noticing (or possibly
not caring) that Friday had faked severe damage to gain entrance to the
base and dispatch Destroyer and Counterweight to rescue their captured
family. After the two children tripped an alarm in the attempt, the
Technocrat decided to capture them by tricking them into thinking the captive
Meraud was behind the plot all along. Before he could take the two
wary children captive Alex and Julie (who figured out how to switch their
powers) arrived and told them the truth of the Technocrat's plotting.
During the ensuing battle with the pseudoplasmic guards, Meraud tricked
Destroyer into blasting a hole in the station's outer wall, creating explosive
decompression and sucking out the guards and the Technocrat, reducing them
to their liquid forms. While Power Pack managed to escape being blasted
out to space via creative use of their powers, and while Meraud regained
access to the station via another entrance, the Technocrat's mind retreated
back to the base's computers, where he managed to use them to disrupt Friday's
systems when it tried to learn the locations of both the Pack and their
parents relative to each other. The Technocrat then confronted a
startled Meraud in his hologram form on the station's bridge, where she
was searching for the keys to the shackles on her wrists. Removing
the shackles, the two watched as Power Pack escaped from another trap and
finally locate their parents. While the Pack discussed how best to
remove their parents from their cocoons, Friday finished repairing itself
enough to safely contact the Pack and tell them what it had learned about
the true nature of the Technorcrat's base (and what Meraud finally realized
independently): that the base was actually the Technocrat's true
body, with his mind long since merged with the station's computers.
Wishing to destroy both the Pack and the Technocrat, and gambling that
the Technocrat was not as sharp as he used to be centuries ago, Meraud
convinced him to fire a missile through the base in a last attempt to destroy
the Power family before they could escape from the station. Meraud
jostled the cannon at the last second, sending the missile straight to
the station's fission chamber, setting off a fatal chain reaction in the
base. Before Meraud could reach her ship and escape the coming explosion,
a PO'd holographic Technocrat confronted her in the landing bay, making
sure she was trapped under some debris and telling her that if he died
in the explosion, then she was going to die as well. The station
then exploded, almost certainly killing Meraud, and possibly killing the
Technocrat as well (see comments below). (And before anyone asks,
Power Pack, their parents, and Friday escaped the station before it exploded,
but since this isn't their profile, I didn't go into the details of their
escape here.)
Comments: Technocrat created by Louise Simonson
(writer), June Brigman (penciler) and Roy Richardson (inker). The
faux Alex, James, and Margret Powers were created by Michael Higgins &
Seth Kruchkow (writers), Tom Morgan (penciler), Andy Mushynsky (inks).
A character so obscure that he's not even listed on Snood's Master List
:D (or at least he wasn't until I mentioned it).
It's unclear from the story itself,
but given his appearance it is possible that the original Technocrat had
been a cyborg before transferring his mind into the satellite's computers.
I am not sure if the Elan in Power Pack I#56-58 was supposed to be THE Infant Terrible, or just another juvenile
member of its race. It never said, and no-one raised the subject
of whether it was the Infant or not.
Revealed in Infant Terrible's profiles in Annihilation#2 (as Delinquent), Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook and the Fantastic Four Encylopedia. It was indeed Infant Terrible appearing in Power Pack. The quartet of aliens in Power Pack I#60 were from the planet
Ciegrim-7, first introduced in one of the Hercules 2300 limited series.
In Power Pack I#60 they had just crash-landed on Earth and were looking for some
food when Morty inadvertently took control of them while playing with his
toys.
The Excalibur flashback had the fake Alex as being
with his family when they were captured, and turning into cloud form only
after the gassing began. Given his appearance at the time, the only
way he could be present without drawing undue attention to himself (and
subjecting his family to a barrage of nosey questions) is if he was in
cloud form already, and making sure he kept the cloud extremely loose so
as to not be mistaken for smoke. (I mean, it'd look pretty weird
if the Power family always had a smoke cloud following it around indoors.
That would get the wrong people talking.) Best fix for this is to
say that since the main villain was mystical, that the gas used against
both the Powers and Excalibur had some mystic properties that could affect
someone even in cloudy form. Then again, given the "it was all a
dream -- or was it?" nature of the ending, maybe none of this matters in
the end anyway. (Heck, if I understand that ending right, they apparently
never made it to the Institute at all until the very end, when everyone
basically says nothing happened at all.)
The Technocrat was invented for
the sole purpose of retconning away some rather. . . . interesting. . .
. . plotlines introduced in the last few issues of that Power Pack run,
like Alex's tuning into a Kymellian, James Powers getting superpowers out
of the blue, and Margret Powers's bizarre catatonic state. I THINK
I got all the appearances of the faux Powers here, but since I couldn't
find any listing of all the issues they appeared in anyplace (heck, I couldn't
find anyplace that listed any of these guys as separate characters AT ALL,
or even listed the Power Pack Holiday Special as an existing book!) there may be one or more
I missed. If so, let me know and I'll add them in.
Where Higgins and Kruchkow were
planning on taking the alien visions "Margret" was having I have no clue,
and as far as I know, it's never been touched on anyplace ever again.
Come to think of it, if the Technocrat could do an exact "copy & paste"
with someone's memories without doing harm to the original subject, then
all he had to do was "copy & paste" from Dr. Powers to either his computers
or to a pseudoplasmic servant, and sift through those copied memories to
find the info he sought rather than going through the effort of kidnapping
and replacing the actual Powers adults and sifting through their memories
while on his station. But then there'd be no story usable to do a
retcon with, so. . . . .
Odd note on this version of the
Marvel Super-Heroes comic: when searching for this online, I found
that few listed this book at all under its own name, if listed at all.
Mile High Comics had the series, but listed it under the title of Marvel
Special Edition rather than as Marvel Super-Heroes. Not sure why
they felt the need to list it under a title it never saw print under, since
listing the publication dates would have easily distinguished this run
from its 1960's predecessor. Go figure.
The concept of a machine made from
a semi-solid substance that could be formed into anything (including people)
is not a new one, either in the Marvel Universe proper or in Science Fiction/Fantasy
in general. It's been around for decades, at least. For all
I know, John Campbell or Hugo Gernsback or someone in their stable of writers
invented the stuff in a story someplace waaaaay back in the 1920's at least.
It was stated that the technology
to create pseudoplasm was destroyed when the spacestation Kymellia II was
destroyed. Given the size of his own spacestation, the Technocrat
should have had no problem duplicating the process in his own place rather
than relying on Kymellia II to produce it for him. The only reason
I can think of for why he couldn't produce pseudoplasm after Kymellia II
exploded was that his process for creating it required the presence (or
the by-products) of live Kymellians to succeed, which was the one thing
Kymellia II had bunches of but the Technocrat's spacestation lacked.
And it's probably advisable to not think too hard on that, unless you really
want to be totally grossed out by what biostuffs the process might require.
. . . .
All in all, I rather liked this
guy; he had a neat visual to him. And given his merging with a computer,
he could very easily have had a back-up someplace that escaped his station's
destruction, and could somehow recreate his body again, as well as those
of his servants, including the faux Powers.
Profile by Elf
with a gun Clarifications:
Technocrat has no known connections to
The Technocrat's servants in their originally programmed forms were indistinguishable
from real Kymellians, exact copies down to a molecular level. They
could also be programmed to believe they were "real" Kymellians rather
than artificial ones. The Pseudoplasmic servants could also duplicate
the native powers of the Kymellians, though to what extent they could do
so remains unrevealed.
--Power Pack Holiday Special#1
--Power Pack Holiday Special#1
The real name of the protoplasmic servant chosen to impersonate Alex
Power is unrevealed, as are its power set. As "Alex", he had all
of the real Alex's memories and desires (such as his crush on girlfriend
Alison), plus the usual worries of a thirteen-year-old boy going through
puberty. He retained the belief he was Alex Power even after his
body reverted back to its original appearance. His powers in his
original form are unrevealed. As "Alex", he had control over his
body mass, able to go cloudy at will or shrink down to around six inches
or so. Before being seemingly destroyed he began to develop a healing
power he could use on others, and could create a density field to protect
himself and others from attacks. Supposedly he could teleport as
well, but that was never shown, just alluded to. He was also able
to hear a mysterious "voice from beyond" who gave him advice and encouragement
when he really needed it. (Originally the voice was supposed to
be the ghost of Whitey, the Kymellian who gave his powers to the Power
children at the cost of his own life (waaaaay back in Power Pack I#1), but with the
retcon that this Alex was a fake one, who that voice really was can now
be assumed to be a different Kymellian altogether, I think.)
--Power Pack I#56 (Power Pack I#56, 58-62, Excalibur I#29, Marvel
Super Heroes III#6/2, Power Pack I#62, Power Pack Holiday Special#1
The original name of this pseudoplasmic servant is unrevealed, as are
his original powers. As "Dr. James Power" he had the same memories
and drives as the real Dr. James Powers, as well as his scientific talent
and expertise. At some point just prior to the Power Pack Holiday Special he developed
unspecified powers; unfortunately he was destroyed before the reader could
learn what they were. Possibly they were the same or similar to the
ones the Elan used in Power Pack I#62 when he imitated "James" to fight the Red
Ghost and his Super-Apes (those powers were super-strength, density fields,
enhanced reflexes, and possibly telekinesis,) (Actually, I think Louise
Simonson missed the reveal that the super-powered James was really the
Elan imitating him rather than James suddenly developing super-powers out
of the blue. If you don't believe me, Power Pack I#62, page 11 has the Elan
reveal.)
--Power Pack I#57 (Power Pack I#57-62, Excalibur I#29, Marvel
Super Heroes III#6/2, Power Pack I#62, Power Pack Holiday Special#1
The original name of this pseudoplasmic servant is unrevealed, as is
what powers she had in her original form. As "Margret Power" she
had all the real Margret's memories and desires, plus her artistic abilities.
Unfortunately, her original programming began to overwrite the new programming,
leaving "Margret" just unstable enough to go into a semi-permanent catatonic
state when presented with the knowledge that her children had super-powers.
While in her catatonic state she also saw visions of attacking aliens and
their battles, though who these aliens were have never been revealed.
--Power Pack I#57 (Power Pack I#57-62, Excalibur I#29, Power
Pack Holiday Special#1
Technocrat's base was a spacestation the size of a moon (and possibly
was originally a moon converted to house a humongous underground spacestation),
which he presumably built himself, and which became his home after being
exiled from the other Kymellians. The base was destroyed when Meraud
tricked him into firing a missile through the station in an attempt to
kill the smartship Friday, but Meraud "accidentally" jostled the missile
launcher and the missile instead tore through the fission chamber that
powered the satellite, causing the explosion.
--Power Pack Holiday Special#1
images:
Appearances: The faux James, Margret, and Alex Powers:
First Posted: 06/16/2007 Any Additions/Corrections? please let
me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
History:
(Power Pack Holiday Special#1 (fb) - BTS) - The Technocrat was a brilliant engineer and inventor who evidently thought
technological products were far superior to anything biology could produce,
and believed the Kymellians were better off in space than on a planet.
Besides designing spacestations for himself and others, he invented living
pseudoplasm, a semi-solid thick liquid that could be programmed to duplicate
living beings on a molecular level, fooling even fairly sophisticated Kymellian
scanners, which led to the substance being outlawed on Kymellia.
Centuries ago, when the Kymellians destroyed their original homeworld Kymellia
due to a miscalculation in their formula for matter/antimatter energy conversions,
the Technocrat built the space station Kymellia II to house the survivors
as their new homeworld. An unspecified time later (though evidently
still "centuries ago") the Technocrat was banished from Kymellian society
for unrevealed crimes. He then made a moon-sized space station his
new home and populated it with his pseudoplasmic servants. Under
unrevealed circumstances the Technocrat transferred his consciousness into
the station's computer system, and created a pseudoplasmic duplicate of
his original body to physically interact with others. The fate of
his original body is unrevealed.
(Power Pack I#60) - The next morning an upset "Alex" revealed to the rest
of the team that he had turned into a Kymellian overnight. The others
tried to comfort him with little success, but when Jack warned that their
father was coming "Alex" quickly turned into cloud form and left via the
window, grateful that his power at least still worked, though he now had
an urge to allow himself to dissipate completely and essentially kill himself.
Meanwhile "James" informed the kids that their mother "Margret" had now
recovered and wished to see them before going off on their first day of
school, and warned them not to mention their powers at all in her presence.
While the kids were visiting their mother, "James" asked Jack about the
whereabouts of "Alex", and was told "Alex" couldn't wait to see girlfriend
Alison after summer vacation and had left early to see her, disappointing
"James". "Alex" watched in cloud form while the others walked to school,
then solidified on a cliff in Central Park to bemoan his fate, and was
startled when a cloud that wasn't his formed around him. It disappeared
a second later, leaving "Alex" to believe it was just a figment of his
imagination. A few hours later the still-brooding "Alex" was contacted
by Tattletale's dreamself and told that old Fantastic Four foe Puppet Master
had somehow evidently taken control of Franklin and was forcing him to
fight a quartet of turtle-like aliens at a local pizza restaurant (see
comments below). He also told "Alex" where the Puppet Master was
living then (in a house located on their route to school). While
the rest of the Pack were trying to rescue Tattletale from the aliens,
"Mass Master" entered the Puppet Master's house to somehow stop him from
his mad plan, only to discover the Puppet Master napping on the couch and
a mentally impaired boy playing with toy figures of Franklin Richards and
a set of "Adolescent Microwave Shell-Shocked Amphibians" toys (called
that because apparently there were legal reasons Marvel couldn't use the
name "Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles" in even a one-panel reference to an
actual real-life cartoon. Hey, I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one
on TV. I really don't know what the legalities of this situation
might be.) that Puppet Master had made for him from his special clay.
When the Puppet Master realized what chaos Morty (his (step?)son) inadvertently
caused everyone he apologized, since he never foresaw the possibility of
actual aliens who were almost identical to the cartoon characters could
exist (and thus be controlled by Morty), or that Morty would go against
orders and get into the room where PM kept the dolls he used to control
others and play with them.
--Markus Raymond
The faux James, Margret and Alex Powers are
based on
but have no known connections to any other "Powers" characters running
around the Marvel Universe.
Pseudoplasmic
servants
Krenok
One
The only one of the Technocrat's servants referred to by
name, he was chosen to become the duplicate of Lightspeed (Julie Power)
when the Technocrat realized that Julie was close to realizing the truth
of his deception. He was transformed into an exact copy of Lightspeed,
but was seemingly destroyed before he could be switched out with the real
Lightspeed. The powers he had in his original form are unrevealed.
As Lightspeed, he would have had her power of flight, but that was never
put to the test.
"Mass Master/Alex Power" 
"Dr. James Power" 
"Margret Power"
Technocrat's
spacestation
Power Pack Holiday Special#1, p9, pan2 (main)
Power Pack I#56, p21, pan3 ("Mass Master" healing Elan)
Power Pack I#62, p8, pan.6 ("Mass Master" as crouching Kymellian)
Power Pack I#61, p2-3, pan8-9 ("Mass Master" using powers)
Power Pack Holiday Special#1, p7, pan1 (Pseudoplasmic servants)
Power Pack I#59, p12, pan7 ("Alex Power" as human)
Power Pack I#60, p3, splash page ("Alex Power" as standing Kymellian)
Power Pack I#60, p8, pan.3 ("Dr. James Power")
Power Pack I#58, p20, pan2 ("Margret Power")
Power Pack Holiday Special#1, p18, pan1 (Spacestation)
Technocrat:
Power Pack Holiday Special#1 (February, 1992) - Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (penciler), Roy Richardson (inker)., Fabian Nicieza (editor)
Power Pack I#56 (May, 1990) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Tom Morgan (penciler), Andy Mushynsky (inks), Daryl Edelman (editor)
Power Pack I#57 (July, 1990) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Tom Morgan (penciler/inker), Andy Mushynsky (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Power Pack I#58-59 (September-October, 1990) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Tom Morgan (penciler/inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Excalibur I#29 (Early October, 1990) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Chris Wozniak (penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Power Pack I#60 (November, 1990) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Tom Morgan (penciler), Dave Cockrum (inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Power Pack I#61 (January, 1991) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Tom Morgan (penciler/inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Power Pack I#62 (February, 1991) - Michael Higgins & Seth Kruchkow (writers), Steve Buccellato (penciler), Don Hudson (inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Marvel Super Heroes III#6/2 (July, 1991) - Michael Higgins (writer), Steve Buccellato (penciler/colorist), Don Hudson ()inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Power Pack Holiday Special#1 (February, 1992) - Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (penciler), Roy Richardson (inker), Fabian Nicieza (editor)
Last updated: 06/16/2007
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